{"id":22812,"date":"2023-07-28T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=22812"},"modified":"2023-07-26T20:14:53","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T20:14:53","slug":"continental-lovers-sister-morphine-upb-the-pit-mccanns-newport-21st-july-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=22812","title":{"rendered":"Continental Lovers\/Sister Morphine\/UPB – \u2013 The Pit, McCanns<\/a>, Newport \u2013 21st<\/sup> July 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It\u2019s Friday night and when bands as cool as Continental Lovers and Sister Morphine are dewn tewn (that\u2019s the Newportonian way of pronouncing \u201cdown town\u201d just in case you thought it was a double typo) then there\u2019s only one place RPM Online is going to be, especially when its FREE entry.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The unknown entity on tonight\u2019s bill for yours truly is opener UPB. This three-piece relatively \u201cunknown punk band\u201d (think about it) are all local lads and apparently, they are also a band who avoid political subject matter within their songs. Then again that might just be singer\/guitarist Matt yanking our collective chain, because what I can gather from watching their nine song set, is that all the songs drawn from their \u2018Ranthology\u2019 album (played in full here along with non-album track \u2018Pirates\u2019) are all pretty much politically charged or at least contain some poignant social commentary, albeit with UPB this all comes wrapped up with some instantly hummable melodies. Opener \u2018The Thrill\u2019, complete with its Sweeney intro being a perfect example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt has more than a hint of Pete Shelley about him, so even when the band\u2019s message is as blunt as \u2018Fuck Off Boris\u2019 there\u2019s still a great hook to get stuck in your head, then when he switches into Jake Burns mode he has the aforementioned \u2018Pirates\u2019, a truly great tune, with which to weave his magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best thing about UPB is that in the 30 odd minutes spent in their company here tonight I didn\u2019t actually feel like I was on a night out in Zooport, nah I was in Blackpool (in my head at least) watching another great band at the annual Rebellion Festival and all that was missing was the sticky floor of the Empress Ballroom. As the band\u2019s T-shirts proudly declare \u2018Punks Not Dad\u2019, and as long as there are bands like UPB out there it never will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because it\u2019s impossible to keep great music down folks, as the long overdue reunion of low-slung rock \u2018n\u2019 rollers Sister Morphine has proven. Yes, it might be over three decades since they were last out and about taking no prisoners whilst sharing stages with the likes of Gunfire Dance, Red Dogs and Last Of The Teenage Idols, but what\u2019s thirty years when you\u2019ve just released one of the surprise packages of the year in the shape of your debut album \u2018Ghosts Of Heartbreak City\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n

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There are people here tonight who have travelled pretty much the width of the UK to witness the band\u2019s second gig back together, and as the five-piece launch into their furious opener \u2018Holy City Zoo\u2019, it\u2019s only the hints of grey in the hair of the band members that\u2019s really the difference from how I remember them live first time around. Tight and brimming with cock sure attitude, this is incendiary stuff for sure, and as frontman Gaz Tidey (n\u00e9e James) quickly observes, if when his careers advisor told him as a 13-year-old that if he didn\u2019t buck up his ideas he\u2019d end up down the pit, then perhaps The Pit (as in tonight\u2019s venue) wasn\u2019t such a bad place to be after all. Thus, providing the almost near perfect intro to the band\u2019s finest three minutes to date, \u2018Nothing Dirty in the Truth\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike with the band\u2019s first show back where due to the multi band line up it meant the band shared a backline and had only a vocal PA to help drive home their tunes, tonight, playing through a proper in house rig the guitars of Lloyd and (in particular) Nick cut though the humidity with razor-like precision whilst the mesmerising bass lines of \u2018Hollywood\u2019 Mike and the rock-solid drums of Denley Slade shake McCanns to its very foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few additional cuts included here tonight too, and these come in the shape of \u2018Cry The Rain\u2019 and \u2018Days Of Wine & Roses\u2019 which whilst these tracks do perhaps lean more towards the late \u201880s\/early \u201890s flowery shirt scene of which the Morphine monster were very much a part of, that\u2019s certainly no bad thing in my book, as it\u2019s great to hear the latter track live once again after all these years, and it still sound so pertinent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look, I\u2019ll admit I could be accused of nepotism here as I\u2019ve long been friends with all the members of Sister Morphine, but they would also expect me to write the truth if they weren\u2019t actually up to the mark. So, it\u2019s with somewhat great relief that after Ben Hughes gave the band\u2019s album a rave review on RPM just a few months back, I can echo his positivity when it comes to the band\u2019s live show. Don\u2019t believe me? Then just ask the punters that travelled from far and wide to be here tonight. It\u2019s great to have the guys back it really is.<\/p>\n\n\n

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It\u2019s great to have Continental Lovers frontman Joe Maddox back in Wales tonight too, because the man is not only like a brilliant ray of powerpop joy whenever he plays in our locale but as he reveals tonight, he\u2019s also of Welsh heritage, with his father being born just down the road in Penarth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time I bumped into Joe was when he was fronting The DeRellas at Rebellion Festival pre-pandemic and a lot has happened in the world since then, not least he\u2019s gone and got himself a rather spiffing new outfit in the shape of Continental Lovers, and it\u2019s a band you\u2019re all going to love once you\u2019ve heard them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking to the stage to the intro tape of \u2018Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll (Pt 2)\u2019 opener \u2018Tattered Star\u2019 is a song that immediately takes you to a place somewhere between Joe\u2019s old bands The Breakdowns and The DeRellas, then latest single \u2018Paraffin Lips\u2019 truly sets the touchpaper before \u2018Tape Deck\u2019 explodes in all our faces. BANG!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an added edge and indeed image that bassist Keri K Sinn helps bring to the Lovers, being equal parts Noel Fielding and Johnny Thunders, he appears the perfect foil for his rhythmic partner in crime Rokket R Rik (a proper whacker of the drums not a tickler that\u2019s for sure) over which Maddox and fellow six stringer Ben Webster can strut and pout like they are headlining their fifth sold out night at MSG not some basement bar in Newport.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The band\u2019s debut single \u2018Really Doesn\u2019t Matter\u2019 is a particular stand out for yours truly as is their exceptional cover of Stiv Bator\u2019s \u2018Make Up Your Mind\u2019, a track which Joe states is likely to be the band\u2019s next single. There are also times tonight where I detect subtle hints of both Phil Lynott and Tom Petty within Maddox\u2019s songwriting and \u2018Wedding Song\u2019, which pops up mid set, is the most striking example of this. Of the rest of the set \u2018St. Joan\u2019, \u2018Can\u2019t Get Her Outta My Head\u2019 and \u2018Dale Arden\u2019 all trash their way straight to our punk rock hearts before a double whammy of New York Dolls\u2019 \u2018Jetboy\u2019 and Cheap Trick\u2019s \u2018He\u2019s a Whore\u2019 provide the perfect finale by which to send us all out into the cooling summer rain and our journeys home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make sure you check out Continental Lovers at Rebellion 2023, they play the After Dark Stage in the Arena on the Saturday at 11:45, the band have asked if you can, to please bring balloons. It\u2019s going to be a one hell of a party folks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Johnny Hayward<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Friday night and when bands as cool as Continental Lovers and Sister Morphine are dewn tewn (that\u2019s the Newportonian way of pronouncing \u201cdown town\u201d just in case you thought it was a double typo) then there\u2019s only one place RPM Online is going to be, especially when its FREE entry. The unknown entity on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[6022,8075],"class_list":["post-22812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-review","tag-continental-lovers","tag-sister-morphine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22821,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22812\/revisions\/22821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}